Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to FIU Online so we’ve developed a privacy policy that covers how we collect, use, share, store and protect your personal information.

By submitting a request for information, I hereby expressly consent to be contacted by email, auto-dialed and/or pre-recorded telephone calls, and/or SMS messages from or on behalf of FIU Online and/or its fulfillment partners at the telephone number I provided, including my cellular number, even if I am on a corporate, State or Federal Do-Not-Call list. By submitting, I certify that I am the owner of the wireless phone and/or email provided by me. Consent shall continue unless revoked by me in writing. I understand that my consent is not a condition to receive the information, but if I do not consent I will have to contact FIU Online at onlineprograms@fiu.edu myself.

FIU Online is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. By interacting with FIU Online, you consent to the use of information that is collected or submitted as described in this privacy policy. The FIU Online Privacy Policy is not intended to supersede or modify the terms of Florida International University’s official, enterprise-wide Privacy Policy. If there is a conflict between the FIU Online Privacy Policy and FIU’s official, enterprise-wide Privacy Policy, the FIU official, enterprise-wide Privacy Policy shall govern. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with our privacy practices and contact us if you have any questions.

What information is collected?

Information we Collect Automatically
If you visit our website to browse, read, or download information, your web browser automatically sends us information such as the:

• Internet domain through which you access the internet
• Internet protocol address of the computer you are using
• Type of browser software and operating system you are using
• Mobile device information (e.g., device model, device date and time, unique device identifiers, mobile network information)
• How you use our sites, search terms, pages you visit
• Geo-location and date and time you access our site
• Demographic information, including age, gender, and interests
• Internet address of the site from which you linked directly to our site

To make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.

FIU Online collects both session and persistent cookies from first and third parties to enhance the customer experience, particularly to:

• Improve website functionality and performance
• Understand user behavior
• Connect visitors to social networks
• Measure the effectiveness of advertisements and web searches
• Remember users' actions, to identify the user, for online behavioral advertising
• Retarget website visitors with ads on products in which they have expressed interest

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see allaboutcookies.org . You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.

FIU Online uses automated data collection for aggregate data reporting. We may also connect information collected automatically with information we already have about you in order to identify you as an FIU Online visitor. If we are able to identify you as an FIU Online guest, we may, for example, link your activity on our website to your activity with a telephone call you made to FIU Online. This allows us to provide you with a personalized experience.

The site uses Inspectlet, a third-party web analytics tool, in order to analyze how users use the site. You can view Inspectlet’s Privacy Policy at: https://www.inspectlet.com/terms-of-service#privacy . In addition, this website features the use of Google Analytics and specific coding that tracks visitor data.  You can view Google’s Privacy Policy at: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ . And, FIU Online adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) self-regulatory principles for OBA.

Information Provided to Us
We will not obtain personally identifying information about you when you visit our site, unless you choose to provide such information. Types of information we collect may include:

• First and last name
• Mailing address
• Email address
• Phone number(s) either LAN or cellular
• All applicant data submitted at the time of application

Any and all information collected may be saved indefinitely.

How is your information used?

Examples of how we use the information we collect include:

• Respond to requests for information about our degree programs and other products and services.
• Communicate Information about our products, services, events and for other promotional purposes, via calls, emails or texts.  These methods of contact may be generated using an automated technology system.
• Improve the effectiveness of our website, products, services, and marketing efforts.
• General research and analysis purposes.
• Legal compliance.

What Choices do you Have?

Postal Mail
If you do not wish to any type of direct mail, please call FIU Online at 305-348-3125 or email onlineprograms@fiu.edu to opt out.

Telephone
If you do not wish to receive promotional telephone calls, please call FIU Online at 305-348-3125 or email onlineprograms@fiu.edu to opt out.

Email
If you do not wish to receive promotional emails from us, please call FIU Online at 305-348-3125 or email onlineprograms@fiu.edu to opt out. You may also have the ability to unsubscribe from certain promotional emails via the unsubscribe link included in each promotional email.

Text Messages
We will send text messages if you have consented to receive them. Message and data rates may apply. If you do not wish to receive text messages from us, please text the word "STOP" to 305-348-3125 or email onlineprograms@fiu.edu to opt out.

WhatsApp
We will send you WhatsApp messages if you have consented to receive them or have accepted our privacy policy. Message and data rates may apply. If you do not wish to receive Whats App messages from us, please call FIU Online at 305-348-3125 or email onlineprograms@fiu.edu to opt out. Note that by using WhatsApp you are also agreeing to WhatsApp's specific Privacy and Terms, found at https://www.whatsapp.com/legal.

How is your personal information protected?

General
We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information and we use industry standard methods to protect that information. Please note that no website, database or system is completely secure or “hacker proof.”  You are also responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure or misuse.

Admissions
Your information will not be used in the admissions process. In the event that data that we collect identifies your race, ethnicity, gender, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation, none of that collected information will be shared with the admissions department of Florida International University (FIU); these attributes will in no way factor into FIU’s admission decision. FIU’s non-discrimination policy opens admittance to students of all races, ethnicities, genders, religions, national origins, and sexual orientations. Your rights, privileges, and access to all academic programs, financial aid, and activities are granted free from selections made on the basis of any of the aforementioned attributes.

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA"), as well as Florida Statute ( 1002.225, F.S. ) and the University’s FERPA Regulation ( FIU-108 ) govern the education records of FIU students.  We will not release any personal student information, other than to university personnel or agents strictly for legitimate educational purposes.  However, student directory information may be released without the student's written consent. Directory information includes:

• Student’s name, local and permanent address, and telephone numbers
• Date and place of birth
• Student classification and major and minor fields of study
• Participation in officially recognized activities and sports
• Weight and height of members of athletic teams
• Dates of attendance, degrees and awards received
• The most recent previous educational agency or institution attended by the student
• Photographic image

Phishing
"Phishing" is a scam designed to steal your personal information. If you receive an email that looks like it is from us asking you for your personal information, do not respond. We will never request your password, username, credit card information or other personal information through email.

Payment
When you submit payment information (e.g., credit card number and billing address), FIU uses CyberSource and CampusCE, third-party providers of commerce processing service to receive the payments. To view CyberSource’s privacy policy, visit its website at: https://usa.visa.com/legal/privacy-policy.html . To view CampusCE’s privacy policy, visit its website at http://www.campusce.com/docs/privacy.pdf .  

Children’s Personal Information
Our website is not intended for or targeted at children under 13, and we do not knowingly or intentionally collect information about children under 13.  If you believe that we have collected information about a child under 13, please contact us immediately so that we may delete the information.

How is your information shared?

FIU Online may share the information we collect with companies that provide support services to us (such as printers, mail houses, email providers, mobile marketing services, analytics providers, contracted advertisers, web-hosting providers, call center/chat providers, enrollment or recruitment vendors) or that help us market our products and services. These companies may need information about you in order to perform their functions on our behalf.

Information will not be disclosed to other third parties or other government agencies, unless required by state or federal law. Please note that Florida's public records law requires that all information received in connection with state business including email addresses, be made available to anyone upon request, unless the information is subject to a specific statutory exemption. If you do not want your email address disclosed as a public record, please contact the university via telephone or by mail.

Use of Third-Party Services
We may share your information with third-party service providers for the purposes of communicating with you regarding our programs and services, or to facilitate improvement of our services, our websites, and our marketing efforts or to help us provide services to our FIU community (e.g. software/information technology providers).

Some pages within the website may contain content that is provided by external third parties (graphic, logo or script). When you visit one of our pages that contain this third-party content, information such as IP address, date, browser and requested page may be transmitted to that third party. Some pages may contain links to external third parties in order to provide services or products to you. FIU is not responsible for the privacy practices of these external third parties. While we request these third parties to protect your information, we do not make any representations about the practices and policies of these third parties. These third parties are not subject to FIU Privacy Notice.

How to update your personal information?

In order to keep your personal information accurate and complete, please contact our FIU Online Contact Center at 305-348-3125 or onlineprograms@fiu.edu with your current contact information.

How do I opt out of the data-collection process?

For more information about Inspectlet, including instructions on how to opt out of Inspectlet’s service, please see https://www.inspectlet.com/optout. If you would like to be completely removed from the FIU Online database of website leads, please contact us at 305-348-3125 or email onlineprograms@fiu.edu to request removal of any collected information.

How do I contact FIU Online?

FIU Online
11200 SW 8th Street
MANGO 540
Miami, FL 33199
305-348-3125

FIU Online Privacy Policy Scope

This privacy policy applies to all current and former website visitors’ personal information and also applies to all visitors of FIU Online websites. Our website may offer links to other sites. If you visit one of these sites, you may want to review the privacy policy on that site. In addition, you may have visited our website through a link or a banner advertisement on another site. In such cases, the site you linked from may collect information from people who click on the banner or link. You may want to refer to the privacy policies on those sites to see how they collect and use this information.